“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.“~Martin Luther king, Jr.

A life of meaning and purpose is a life that has the potential for a very deep sort of happiness. Such lives of meaning are worthy of both celebration and of emulation.

And so in celebration of the life of the man who most personified the 1960s Civil Rights movement, whose name is almost synonymous with that era, who risked all and consecrated the movement he helped start with his very blood, I give you 5 life-changing quotes by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Five Powerful Quotes by Martin Luther King

1. “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Even if I knew no one would ever read what I wrote here, I would still write it. I would declare truth even if no one listened. I would do what I believed was right even if no one was watching.

I would do it because I would be doing what my soul cries out to do. And in that obedience to the promptings of my soul, I would be fulfilling the deepest part of my calling here on earth. To do otherwise would be to deny my most basic self, to hide my inner most passion in the back closet of things I never got around to.

2. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”

Some will be leaders of nations and others will raise a wonderful family. One will discover the cure for cancer and another will serve on the local PTA. One will run a Fortune 500 corporation employing tens of thousands while another will hire two part-time employees to help the family business. Some will solve societal ills. Others will solve their own.

It’s not so much what we do as how we do it that matters. Some people’s circles of influence are large, reaching millions or more. Others hardly extend into the next room. But the meaningful life is in the content, not the extent. A life of purpose cares less about numbers–the extent to which you change the world–and more about quality of the change, less about greatness and more about goodness.

Besides, it doesn’t matter how big the task, how deep and intractable the problem or how overwhelming circumstances are, something can always be done to chip away at life’s challenges. Many small things make big things big. Do the small things in great ways and, in time, you’ll be doing great things.

3. “One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized, cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”

In a day and age when people go on daytime talk-shows and reality TV to publicly display their dirtiest laundry, when shame seems to have faded to an altogether different era, it seems that dignity is being given away by the handful by a generation that doesn’t value it much.

Honesty and openness and authenticity may be good things in most cases, but to be honestly and authentically rude, shallow and indecent hardly seems a virtue. Perhaps what’s on the stage of our lives should be worked on before worrying too much about the volume of the microphone or the setting of the spotlight. (Tweet)

Hate is a virus that spreads like wildfire. It burns and consumes and destroys. It damages cultures and ruins relationships and corrupts hearts and decays character and ransacks souls.

Hatred is dark and smothering and implosive, crashing everything around it down on top of itself. It drives people to do the unthinkable and gives the object of hate such tremendous power over the hater.

The hater often becomes fixated on the hated. They give up control of their thoughts and motives, their passion and attitude, their peace and happiness to the very person or people they perceive to have wronged them. And yet they feed that power. And it grows until peace, happiness, will power and human decency are all but distant memories of a time before hate drove them out.

Love, on the other hand, cools the passion of hate, heals wounds inflicted by its venom, motivates change and delivers freedom to those previously imprisoned behind the bars of hatred.

5. “Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.”

Most people don’t start revolutions. Most people don’t make waves. Most people don’t speak up. Most people don’t even vote here in the U.S. in most elections.

But there are always some handful of people who see the world differently, as a stage on which to perform some great drama, initiate some great change, do some great work with great passion that shifts the world on its axis and sends it rotating in the other moral, social, scientific, technological, medical or political direction, that lifts and inspires and blesses a generation or even an era.

We don’t all have to be the faces and names of such sea-changes. Most of us won’t be. And that’s okay. But we can join good causes that help spark cultural revolutions in human decency or spur them forward, even if we never extend our reach further than our next door neighbor with a single act of kindness.

So even if we can influence no more than the handful of people we know well, then that part of the world will still have been changed. And as any change to a recipe ultimately changes the flavor of the dish, so we will have changed the world by changing that particular part of it as well.

And that’s not a bad way to live a life.

Before you go, watch this short excerpt from MLK’s famous I Have a Dream speech:

YOUR TURN!

Would love to read your thoughts in the comments.

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27 Comments

Some great advice from the man himself, Ken. You have adapted it well to help people in today’s world. I shall stop by to read more of your posts. 🙂Neil Butterfield recently posted … Is salt really bad for you?

Thank you, Neil. MLK is a very quotable man, whose words are timeless because the principles he espoused are, and therefore will continue to be applicable indefinitely. So my job was made pretty easy. 🙂 Hope you find more here that interests you, Neil. And welcome to M2bH!

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – This one is my favourite.
Life is meant for helping others, but first of all your life is meant for yourself. Life is precious – it’s essential that one finds one’s purpose and then start living in alignment with it – irrespective of what happens in the rest of the world.
Great thoughts from a great man!Sulagna recently posted … Of Men, Women, Taxis and Friday Evenings…

That’s one of my favorite MLK quotes too, Sulagna! That’s one of the reasons I started with that one.

I love you philosophy of life: Help others, but don’t forget to pursue what your love and are passionate about too! If we neglect our life’s purpose, we neglect a core part of ourselves. And incomplete people don’t serve others as well as they otherwise could have.

While MLK was as human as the rest of us, so parts of his life were not always that great, I agree that what he did and the principles he fought for so valiantly nevertheless made him a great man.

Excellence in whatever field no matter how grand or humble absolutely inspires me. I even make a course of habit to call over a manager if a clerk or waiter or whoever goes above the call of duty and performs his or her job excellently to commend the person.

Hello Ken, this is my first time to your blog and I must say that I am impressed. I love what you have written here and how you have explained it to us. I am a student of living a quality life in every sense of the word. I look forward to reading more of your posts.Wade Balsdon recently posted … Stress & Emotional Eating – It CAN be a good thing…

This man is without a doubt, one of the most inspiring men who’ve ever lived. I have heard the I Have A Dream Speech, but have never heard any of the ones you have here. They are remarkable, simple, and make so much sense.

Thanks for bringing these inspiring words to my attention. The more I learn about what this guy said, the more I understand why he was killed so young.Anne recently posted … Life Lessons From Living

Glad you noticed that, Anne. I purposely stayed away from some of the more well-known often-quoted phrases and opted for these less frequently used ones. MLK is a very quotable man. As a preacher, he honed his delivery style and phraseology to an art form that inspired a generation then and continues to inspire us now.

“The more I learn about what this guy said, the more I understand why he was killed so young.” That’s an interesting observation, Anne. He did challenge the social norms of (in some ways) a broken era. I guess some who had only their skin color to hold onto as a self-exalting identity felt that identity threatened. And when hate fills your heart and lungs and soul, it’s not a huge step from verbal “protection” to murderous “protection.”

So sad. And yet in his death, we are given that extra sense of appreciation and inspiration to make something of our lives as we read his words and learn the context of those words as they were spoken.

#2 reminds me of what I used to tell my law students. I told them the story of the day I was most proud to be a lawyer. On that day, I watched several lawyers, including the judge, working together in a courtroom to make bogged-down-with-red-tape foster care system work for my new foster son Dan. Dan came into foster care in an unusual way because he parents died and he is autistic. These lawyers did some amazing things that day. They weren’t famous and they didn’t make much money. But they helped a young man in crisis start a new life with the best possible support.

Many law students come to law school thinking they are going to change the world in a big way. And some of them will. But I told them that all of them can make their corner of the world a better place.

You had some lucky students, Galen. The legal profession seems such a mixed back of nobility and chicanery. So many ambulance chasers and defense attorneys working to get clients who have done truly bad things off on technicalities, inflicting society with those who should not be in society.

So while I’m sure there are no more morally sub par lawyers than sub par cops or teachers or doctors or parents, the impression seems otherwise at times when the press makes high profile cases and the attendant legal chicanery that seem to so often attend them so well known. So it’s such breath of fresh air knowing law schools have good people teaching students the larger moral picture. Hope you were replaced by an equally wonderful person.

We all have our own corners of the world. Some reach out further than others. But if each of us can do what we can to make it better, the collective power for good would result in tremendous change.

In 30 years of practicing law–in the judicial system, the private sector, in the US and overseas, and in academia, I found most lawyers to be dedicated professionals with a deep sense of responsibility and a high standard of ethics, higher than the general population, I would submit, perhaps because of the rigorous and strict ethical requirements for getting into law school and for getting a license. I’ve also found the legal profession to be pretty good at self-policing. Violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility are taken seriously.

That said, there are of course lawyers who fail to deserve the trust placed in them, sometimes from lack of skill, other times from intentional misconduct.

Much of what we see as problems in today’s legal system, I think, is based on a broader foundation than just the law. As a society, we have abdicated personal responsibility in favor of a victim mentality. We think we are entitled to a perfect life, and if something isn’t perfect, then someone else is to blame and has to pay for it. Tort reform, including medical malpractice reform, will not gain much traction until we are willing to look at this broader issue.

But overall I find this quote to be very true–
There are three healing professions: medicine that heals the body, religion that heals the soul, and law that heals society.

I used to share this quote with my first year students every year. I urged them to think of themselves as healers first and foremost.Galen Pearl recently posted … Seeking Silence in a Noisy World

Thanks for this reply, Galen. I’ve heard about all the ethics training law students get. I suppose it’s some of the high profile cases where defense attorneys are going beyond ensuring the rights of their client are protected to looking for ways to get their clients off on technicalities that have nothing to do with dispensing real justice that gives the appearance (at least from this outsider’s perspective) that things may have been otherwise.

So glad to hear I’m wrong! 🙂

And I trust you personally unleashed a retinue to highly morally informed students to the world!

I like that quote you shared. Not sure where I’ve come across that before, but am familiar with it. A good reminder.

They are all great, but I like number 2 as well – “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” The idea that we can do something small and still make a difference is something to remember. Being able to help one person and make a change in their life can be so rewarding. Great quotes, Ken!Cathy Taughinbaugh recently posted … The Dance – the Family Disease of Addiction

So agree, Cathy! If everyone in a household cleaned their own messes up and reached out and helped here and there with others, think how clean every home would be. So it is with life. One person, one corner of the world at a time.

Thanks so much for all you do to help lift others as you write and teach and personally get in the trenches of life and love others into a better place.

I like 1, 4, 2, 5 and 3, Ken. Those with good intentions built into their DNA stick to their principles no matter what … which accounts for no.5. This reminds me of an earlier post of yours “Stand up and be counted” (did I get the title right?) where you talked about hypothetical situations and how one might react. Somehow it seems to tie in with this post, for me.

If I can face my conscience with a smile every morning when I wake up, and when I go to bed, and if I feel that I’ve done at least one good deed for someone each day, I feel at peace. We all have a purpose in life and a responsibility towards ourselves and those we interact with. Though each one of us responds to a different kind of music, adding to the Universe’s positive energy is what matters.

You do that.

I loved reading all the quotes and am inspired. Thank you.

Yesterday, as I wrote the latest post on my blog, I quoted my Mom’s speech at Vidur’s school’s Republic Day celebrations in 2006 (yesterday was Republic Day in India) – and I was moved yet again by something my Mother said in her speech “We live in deeds, not years”.

Yes, Vidya, that’s what it was titled. I’m tickled that you actually remember having read a particular article wrote!

I feel the same way about my conscience. I review my day in the form of a prayer and take stock of my day that way, making whatever spiritual and mental adjustments I need to to do a better job at it the next. I also realign myself with my values and my sense of my life’s mission.

MLK says some pretty inspiring things, for sure. I felt incredibly inspired myself as I was looking for the quotes I wanted to use for the post.

I absolutely LOVE your mom as I get to know her more (vicariously through your writing). What a great quotable: “We live in deeds, not years.”

By now, you know I love your blog. If someone grabbed me on the street and wanted to interview me about “Meant to be Happy” you’ll be surprised that I can not only remember posts, but also specific phrases you used. 😉 I am very partial like that. And I view your blog as a personal thing. Can’t get too much of a good thing anyway, eh?Vidya Sury recently posted … I Just Received A Gift

Beautiful and inspirational thoughts of this great man, and it’s a shame that we only know that one sentence of him. He must have been such a gorgeous mind with a great personality. I think I have to do some research about his cv to get some inspiration. My favorite one is the last in your list: “Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.” That’s truly and pure inspirational for me, the big changes or revolutions in the world are always caused by the creative youth or a minority. And that’s important, we mustn’t forget about these things.bonooobong recently posted … A 3D nyomtatás – az orvostudományban

Might want to check your sources before you misattribute a quote. The quote: “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree” was recorded by Martin Luther, not MLK. Great quotes, nevertheless

Thanks Luke. Just went online in search of the truth and found most places attribute the quote to MLK. Still, appears to me that the fewer websites that attribute the quote to Martin Luther are nonetheless a bit more trustworthy, so I thank you for the correction. I’ll be more careful about attribution and double checking sources. Much appreciated!

I am so grateful that I never had to experience or witness or even feel the hatred that he speaks of. I know it’s there as I was reading I could feel it lying dormant under my subconscious inside me. I have never felt it, not like that; so intense, rancid and vulgar. I’m glad I can choose my emotions And I never have to feel that kind of contempt for any living thing if I choose that I don’t want to feel that way. I would rather dance in the sun or the rain or the wind then waste my time making myself suffer.I don’t know how some people could spend almost their whole lives in a dark resentful whole. With the blame game. I clean up my street I do what I can do when I’m wrong I admit it. Sometimes it shocks the people I’m with.I see it on their face anticipating another he said she said argument and then I own it say sorry and I’ll know for next time. Then the look of complete relief washed over them with a smile OK and that’s it! Sorry kinda rambled I just like to be inspired by optimism, happiness and hope

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About Me

My name is Ken Wert, the founder of M2bH. My purpose here is to teach you how to live a richer life of greater purpose and meaning, of mind-blowing possibility and deeper, more soul-satisfying happiness than you ever dreamt was possible. Join us on this happy adventure as you learn how to unlock your hidden potential to enjoy the rewards of a life well lived. Read more ...